Now, About Bavasi's Face...

I'm real curious if Bill Bavasi reads my blog. I seriously doubt it, of course. Seriously doubt it.

Exactly one week ago, I wrote a post on how, in my eyes, Bavasi was losing face. Whatever facial skin cells that were lost a week ago have been completely and totally regenerated. While I do have some connections within the game, I'm nowhere near as connected as several other folks. I was pretty much running under the assumption that as long as Hargrove was around, Everett was going to be here, no matter how poorly he performed. I actually had no problem with Everett, and thought he was probably a good fit in the clubhouse, but his on-the-field performance was hurting the team's chances of winning, and his ability to get his point across in that clubhouse.

The fact that Bavasi took his authority by the horns, and removed Carl Everett from the roster probably made Mike Hargrove very, very angry. As in -- "You can bring up Snelling, Yoda, Doyle, or whatever you call him, and I'll absolutely refuse to play him no matter what" angry. Now, one of the commonly-understood things about Bavasi is that he's EXTREMELY loyal -- perhaps, even, to a fault. It's why he left the Angels, after all, refusing to fire someone that his superiors wanted to fire. Upsetting his field manager, no matter how well they are in sync (and, no, I'm not talking about THAT type of 'N Sync - wink, wink; nudge, nudge say no more), is something he really tries to avoid.

I'm fairly certain, then, that he softened the blow to Hargrove by trading a player that Hargrove seemed to loathe for a MLB-proven bat, who's having a pretty good year at the plate, even if it has been as a platoon split. You'll recall that a few weeks ago, the M's made my blogmate marc w pretty irate by trading away Asdrubal Cabrera for the first half of Cleveland's "Benuardo" platoon. The fact that Hargrove didn't play him like he should have, too, made ME more irate. I would assume that Bavasi calmed everyone's nerves by trading Shin-soo Choo away for the better half. Choo+Drubes for Perez+Broussard. May not have been the best use of those trade chips, but you can't really argue that (in combination) this is an upgrade that will help both this year and in the next 2-3 years. Choo and Drubes were precisely spare parts for the M's. Good spare parts, of course, that could develop into decent-quality major leaguers. But if there's one thing we know -- prospects don't always pan out. If you can get a good, proven MLB player for those prospects, you take a serious look at that deal.

I'm all for stealing good ideas, as long as it's legal. I agree with Dave Cameron's rule of thumb in last night's "USSM in a Foster Home" game thread -- an idea stolen from Mark Shapiro is probably a good one. I also agree with Dr. Detecto's take on this. It may be bigger than upgrading from the M's 7-headed monster at catcher to Kenji Johjima. I see it more like upgrading from 1993 Omar Vizquel's bat to 1996 A-Rod's.

This should be a good trade for all parties involved. Choo goes to an organization that favors prospects, and likely treats him right. Broussard brings his lefty bat to Safeco, and his personality will fit right in with this club. Bill's happy, Mark's happy. Carl's happy, Hargrove's happy.

I'm happy.